


In defense of the second chance

by StuckySituation



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Body Swap, Happy Ending, Light Angst, M/M, Magic, Non-Serum Steve Rogers/Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes | Shrinkyclinks, Reincarnation, Soulmates, Strangers to Lovers, Winter Soldier Trial, reposting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-06 22:48:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18397934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StuckySituation/pseuds/StuckySituation
Summary: Shrinkyclinks Fest 2019's,Prompt #42 by Gigglepud:"Bodyswap au. Steve and Bucky as strangers, but one day wakes up in each other's respective bodies. (Why, how, when, etc up to you)."---“-rnes? Wake up. We’ll be back in HQ in ten minutes.”Steve is still half-asleep, and not ready to let go of his dream. It was a nice dream.The details are already slipping away from him, though, no matter how much he tries to resist forgetting the dream. There were other kids? He was in school? Steve groans, and mutters, “Fuck off.”“I hate to wake you, but dude, you need to shake this off,” the stranger continues, his voice gentle and laced with worry. “You’ll need to go prepare for your trial as soon as we land.”





	In defense of the second chance

**Author's Note:**

> I love body swap -trope, and had been itching to write one of my own when I saw this prompt in the list. Not only did my scifi loving soul see the prompt number "42" as The Sign, but I knew instantly that this was the one true prompt I wanted to claim and tame. Thanks for the fun prompt!
> 
> Thank you [fancyh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fancyh/pseuds/fancyh) for beta reading this, for [Gigglepud](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gigglepud) for the amazing prompt, and for the Shrinkyclinks Fest for the event! <3
> 
> Also, I used [this post](https://stuckysituation.tumblr.com/post/183696673540/chronically-ill-steve-rogers) as my main reference regarding pre-serum Steve's conditions. 
> 
> (There were some changes in the fest posting due to the gimmicky way that AO3 handles collection reveals, and I decided to repost. Thank you for everyone who kudosed and commented on the fic already, I've saved your comments <3)
> 
> TWs: There's implied post-Winter Soldier depression+suicidal ideation on Bucky's part. This is not heavily featured, but the fact that he might not believe in his right to 'win' the trial is brought up several times.
> 
> (Also, features some brutally bad representation of legal system <.<)

 

 

**_Steve_ **

 

“-rnes? Wake up. We’ll be back in HQ in ten minutes.”

 

Steve is still half-asleep, and not ready to let go of his dream. It was a nice dream.

 

The details are already slipping away from him, though, no matter how much he tries to resist forgetting the dream. There were other kids? He was in school? Steve groans, and mutters, “Fuck off.”

 

“I hate to wake you, but dude, you need to shake this off,” the stranger continues, his voice gentle and laced with worry. “You’ll need to go prepare for your trial as soon as we land.”

 

Trial? Steve opens his eyes, and is faced with a reality wilder than any dream he’s ever had.

 

His senses are turned up to eleven; everything is in sharp focus even though he’s not wearing his glasses. He is inside some sort of a very futuristic vehicle, sitting on a chair with four point seat belt hugging him tightly. In front of him, sitting on their own chairs at the opposite wall of the vehicle,  _Hawkeye_ and  _Black Widow_ are looking at him with concern.

 

“Uh, hi,” Steve says. His own voice sounds strange in his own ears. He feels weird -- disoriented.

 

Hawkeye and Black Widow exchange Looks.

 

“Tony is ready to look at that box as soon as we get to the Tower,” Black Widow says, with a deep frown. Her eyes are sharp on Steve. “You really shouldn’t have touched it. Or  _opened_ it.”

 

“Touched what?”

 

Hawkeye swears.

 

Black Widow narrows her eyes. “You don’t remember?”

 

Steve feels overwhelmed. He raises his hand to push back a lock of hair from his face --  _a brown lock of hair, what the fuck is going on --_ but he freezes mid-motion at the sight of the familiar metal arm.

 

“James?” Black Widows snaps.

 

“Don’t shoot me,” Steve says, his head spinning, “but… I’m not Sergeant Barnes.”

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Bucky_ **

 

Bucky wakes up on a couch, which is a novelty on its own. He hasn’t fallen asleep anywhere else than on his own bed for a long time.

 

It’s actually pretty alarming.

 

Alarming enough that it makes him snap awake and alert instantly.

 

There’s no immediate danger in sight, so he stays still and takes stock of his situation. It’s a struggle to keep his breathing and heartbeat even and slow, but he does his best.

 

He’s pretty sure that he’s either drugged, poisoned, or healing from  brain damage. All his senses are muted,  _dull._ Still, he can pick the rumble of traffic from outside the building, as well as someone making noise  somewhere in the apartment. His sense of smell is turned down; all he can smell is… coffee?

 

But his eyesight alarms him the most. The serum gave him sharp eyes that he relies heavily on, yet right now he can’t make out even the titles on the DVD cases a couple meters away. Everything, both close and far-away, is blurred and out of focus.

 

Even the pains and aches of his body are all…  _wrong._ His back is aching, yet his left shoulder feels fine like never before--

 

He stares at his left arm. It’s not his. His right arm is not his either.

 

He doesn’t freak out, because ex-Winter Soldier does  _not_ do  _‘freaking out’,_ but his heart  _does_ make an uncomfortable lurch and picks up  speed, despite all his training and experience in staying focused and calm.

 

Alright. Time to get up and get somewhere safe to figure out what the hell is going on. His body feels stiff and uncooperative, but he manages to get up from the couch without a sound.

 

He’s… short. His center of balance is not where he’s used to. Simply  _standing up_ made him feel dizzy and he has to wait for a moment until his blood pressure normalizes back to a tolerable and functional level, and the black spots disappear.

 

First priority in an unknown situation: find a weapon -- any weapon.

 

He didn’t hear any footsteps, so the familiar voice startles him: “Oh good, you’re up. Hey, I prepared some sandwiches and filled the thermos with coffee, so we should be good to go--”

 

Bucky’s sight might be pisspoor and the man’s face is not much more than a blur, but…  _“Sam?”_

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Steve_ **

 

_“Then who are you?”_

 

Having two guns pointed at his head is actually not a novel situation for Steve. Thanks to his… fucking hell, what  _is_ his life even… thanks to his current  _supersoldier heart_ beating strongly and evenly though, Steve is feeling a lot calmer than usual when things go downhill for him.

 

He keeps carefully still and looks at Black Widow. “I’m Steve, I’m a civilian, and I don’t know how I got here.”

 

Her face remains impassive. “Don’t move or try anything.”

 

Hawkeye raises his hand to his ear. “We have a situation here. Barnes is compromised. Possibly under mind control, body swap, or we may have a impersonator in our hands.”

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Bucky_ **

 

“Uh, Steve? Are you okay?”

 

The possible explanations race through Bucky’s mind, none of them reassuring or calming. “Don’t come any closer.”

 

Sam doesn’t move, but the fact that Bucky can’t  _see_ him clearly is unnerving. Even when he squints, he can’t see Sam’s face well enough to judge his micro-expressions, can’t see the tiny twitches to anticipate his next move.

 

After a long moment Sam continues: “Okay… what’s going on? You’re freaking me out, man.”

 

Bucky would love to know what’s going on as well. Is someone fucking with his mind? Is he inside an illusion? “Why did you call me ‘Steve’?”

 

“...what should I have called you?”

 

He’s conflicted. On one hand, Bucky wants to run away on his own to figure out what is going on. But on the other hand… If this  _is_ Sam, he could help Bucky. And Bucky has a feeling that he’s not going to do a lot of running in his current condition.

 

Bucky licks his dry lips. “You usually call me Bucky.”

 

“... _Bucky?”_

 

Bucky curses inside his head that he can’t see Sam’s expression.

 

“Okay, uh.  _What the hell?”_

 

“What’s the first thing I told you? Ever?”

 

“What? Oh. Uh. I don’t remember your exact wording, but it was something about not being a charity case.”

 

Bucky huffs. “That’s the second thing I told you.”

 

“Well fuck man, we met the first time over a year ago. I don’t have a supersoldier memory-- oh, you told me to fuck off, didn’t you?”

 

Bucky relaxes. A little. “Yeah.”

 

A pause. “It really is  _you?_ How?”

 

“I don’t know. But I need to get out of this shitty body. Fucking hell, I can’t even  _see_ you.”

 

Sam snorts. “Right. Uh. Steve’s glasses are on the coffee table.”

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Steve_ **

 

They land on the Tower’s roof. Steve doesn’t resist being cuffed, but his indignation flares as he’s escorted inside and through the long corridors by not only Hawkeye and Black Widow, but Tony Stark in his Iron Man suit and a bunch of SHIELD agents.

 

Everyone keeps a careful distance and all the guns are pointed at him. He  _gets it,_ of course he does, but it reminds him too much of all the Winter Soldier footage he has gone through during the last months.

 

“What if I was Sergeant Barnes under mind control?” Steve asks angrily, his head high even with his hands tied behind his back and everyone around him oozing mistrust and wariness. “Are you all this ready to shoot your own team member?”

 

“Always,” Black Widow answers calmly from somewhere behind him. “But we would do our best to make our shots non-lethal.”

 

Steve feels, frankly,  _disgusted._ “He’s  _a human, a person,_ and this is  _not_ alright. Everyone is so ready to put him down at the first sign of something going wrong. If even  _you,_ his  _teammates,_ are this ready to pull guns out on him and treat him like a timebomb, it’s no wonder he hasn’t been speaking up for himself.”

 

Nobody answers him at first.

 

Finally, it’s Stark who breaks the silence. “I don’t know about you guys, but I think I’m convinced there’s no way this is Barnes. Who are you? The President of his Fan Club?”

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Bucky_ **

 

Glasses are a relief. They are not serum, but they correct his eyesight to a tolerable level.

 

“Astigmatism,” Sam explains. “Shit, I don’t know where Steve’s hearing aid is. Let me check his bag. Oh, here’s his inhalator. Keep it close to you, he has asthma. And I know he carries emergency medicine for his heart somewhere--”

 

As Sam’s monologue continues, cataloguing everything Bucky needs to keep in mind while inhabiting the borrowed body, Bucky’s uneasiness grows.

 

“I don’t know how to be careful,” Bucky interrupts Sam, with mild horror. “I don’t know this guy, but his body is going to be in pieces before he gets a chance to get it back.”

 

Sam pauses, his hand stilling in mid-air, and there’s an awkward silence.

 

“Not like that. Sam. I didn’t mean I’d do anything  _on purpose--_ ”

 

“I know, I know. But Bucky, where  _is_ Steve if you’re in his body? Please tell me he’s gonna wake up peacefully in your bed and  _not_ in the middle of an unauthorized Avengers mission.”

 

“Er…”

 

Sam groans.

 

Bucky grabs after his memories. “I think I  _was_ in a mission-- but we were already on our way back…”

 

“Man, you gotta be careful with that shit, you and the Avengers will be in so much trouble if people find out you’ve been ignoring the confinement agreements before your trial-- Oh shit.  _Your trial.”_

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Steve_ **

 

They have him chained to the wall in a bare containment room with the opposite wall functioning as a one way mirror. There’s no furniture, but the wall he’s restrained to has a built-in seamless bench to sit on.

 

Stark’s voice carries through the invisible speakers. “So, ‘Steve Rogers’, you say?”

 

Steve sets his jaw and starts to recite the facts. His best plan of action right now is to cooperate with the Avengers. “Born to Sarah and Joseph Rogers in Brooklyn in 1989. Part-time teacher at New York University-”

 

Stark interrupts him. “Steve Rogers,  _the founder_ of the political campaign ‘Bring Back Our Hero Home’, the host of the weekly podcast ‘Bucky Barnes Defense Squad’, arrested already three times this year during the Winter Soldier protests and therefore  _highly_ ranked on FBI’s list for ‘possible terrorists to keep an eye on during the Winter Soldier trials’.”

 

“I didn’t know about that last one,” Steve says stiffly, “but yes. Sounds like me.”

 

“Huh. I was joking about you being the President of the Buckaroo’s Fan Club, but you actually are, aren’t you.”

 

Steve sighs and leans his head against the wall behind him. The lights in the room are uncomfortably bright to his supersoldier eyes. “I was kicked out for ‘being too radical-minded’.”

 

“Oh yeah. Says here that the Vice President of the club accused you of harboring treasonous ideals.”

 

“If being ready to act to defend an innocent man’s freedom is now _treason,_ then-”

 

“I’m not saying that. Did you steal Barnes’s body so you’ll be able to take the bullet for him? You do know it’s his trial day today?”

 

“What? No-” Steve pauses. Shit. Stark was right -- today is the trial day. “I mean, yes, of course I know it. But. I didn’t do this!”

 

“Are you certain? Because this is a funny coincidence. Not only did Barnes switch bodies with someone, but he switched bodies with  _you._ On the day of his trial. If you’re really  _Steve Rogers,_ Barnes’s most outspoken defender on social media for the last months, the most logical explanation would be that you’re trying to sacrifice yourself for him. Believe it or not, but I’ve actually listened to your podcast, and your passion for this case is… remarkable.”

 

Who the hell do they think Steve is? He’s…  _himself,_ he’s  _an art teacher,_ he’s not one of the superheroes or supervillains with endless resources and _body swap_ tricks up his sleeve.

 

“But why go to all of this trouble? Based on all the evidence and the public’s reception of him after the Hydra files were leaked, his win should be in the bag.”

 

Steve opens his mouth to argue, but realises that he would be arguing against  _himself,_ so he shuts his mouth. The cogs are starting to run in his mind, and suddenly he’s hit by the realisation that Stark is  _correct._ In Sergeant Barnes’ body, Steve  _could_ go to the trial, he could help out the man he has advocated for for months--

 

Stark interrupts sharply his thoughts. “Oh? You disagree? Why?”

 

Black Widow’s dry voice comes through the speakers next. “Didn’t you listen to Rogers’s latest podcast, Tony? The one where he argued that James should not be called to the witness stand for himself, because he has shown signs of severe depression and survivor’s guilt in all his latest statements and is likely to self-sabotage the outcome.”

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Bucky_ **

 

“We need to get to the Tower before he’s taken to the court,” Bucky says in horror. “What if he’s sentenced while he’s in my body?”

 

“First of all,  _you know_ that Avengers would not let that pass. Second of all, yup, I still agree with you, let’s go before Steve gets any stupid ideas.”

 

“What do you mean by ‘stupid ideas’?”

 

“Don’t ask me, man, I can’t predict Steve’s crazy train of thought,” Sam says grimly. Bucky follows him to the kitchen, where Sam grabs a backpack from the table and then opens the kitchen drawer full of knives. “Pick whatever you want, and then let’s go.”

 

Bucky appreciates the offer (he’s not surprised by it; he knows that Sam doesn’t go anywhere either without a knife or two), and picks up a couple of small knives.

 

He twists his wrists, makes few slashing and stabbing motions in the air to test out the balance of the knives. His range and agility is nowhere near where it should be, but he can work with the limitations of this body. He has to.

 

Not thinking things through, he attempts to flip the knife in his hand in a way that he has thousands of times.

 

This time, his fingers aren’t fast enough to follow through with the complex movement. He drops the knife on the floor.

 

Okay, he might be ex-Winter Soldier, but even he has his limits, and this is it, this is his ‘no panicking’ limit. He has lost his muscle memory on how to handle the knives like second nature. He’s effectively deserumed, demuscled,  _de-everything._

 

Sam swears. “Careful! You almost dropped it on your foot!”

 

“Don’t tell Nat,” Bucky groans and has to grab hold of the kitchen counter, because the black spots are filling his vision again and he’s feeling faint. “Ever.”

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Steve_ **

 

Steve mulls over his options. “Okay. Let’s say that this was my martyrish plan all along. Will you let me carry it out?”

 

There’s a long silence.

 

“We might have to,” Black Widow says finally. “We can’t let it leak that we have lost James, and I don’t know how we could get the judge or the public believe in this ‘body swap’. But Tony, I don’t think Rogers is behind this. Bruce found something about that box James found. Check this out.”

 

“Hey, I’d like to know about it too,” Steve protests. “I have a right to know what’s going on.”

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Bucky_ **

 

They’re taking the subway to the station near Avengers Tower, and Bucky is legitimately afraid that Steve Rogers’s heart is going to give up any minute now. Bucky hasn’t been around the crowds much lately, and even in his own body he would be hypervigilant and tense, but having a body that is far weaker and far more fragile than his own makes him feel uncomfortably vulnerable and powerless.

 

It reminds him of his time under the Hydra’s control, where there was no way for him to fight back. This time his limitations are physical instead of mental, but he still hates it.

 

Sam says something, but Bucky can’t make sense of it, not with the loud rattling and rumbling of the subway, with a bunch of people talking in the background. “Speak louder,” he sighs. “This hearing aid is shit.”

 

“Sorry,” Sam says louder and clearer, leaning closer -- and isn’t that weird, Sam towering over him. “I was saying that I was actually planning to introduce you two to each other. You know, after today.”

 

“Why?”

 

“He’s a big fan of yours,” Sam says with a grin.

 

Bucky frowns. “So his brain is in as poor condition as the rest of him? Good to know.”

 

Sam laughs and shakes his head.

 

They’re two stops from their destination, when the announcement is made through the subway speakers:  _“Passengers. We want to remind you that due to the Winter Soldier trial, the police have closed the next three stations from the public today. Our next stop will be--”_

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Steve_ **

 

Nobody is telling him anything about whatever they found out, and the room is too well sound-proofed for Steve to eavesdrop on whatever is discussed on the other side of the wall.

 

“What’s the time?” he asks boredly and loudly. “If I’m going in front of the court today, I don’t think wearing a dirty tac suit is going to convince anyone that Barnes hasn’t been out of the Tower since his official home confinement started.”

 

The door opens and Black Widow strolls in. She’s… smiling. “Good point, Rogers. So, one question. Are you  _really_ ready to go in for his trial?”

 

Steve meets her eyes steadily. “Yes. If I can help him, I will.”

 

“You’ve never even met him,” she says, with a quirked eyebrow and unconcealed curiosity.

 

“So?” Steve shrugs. “Have you found him yet?”

 

“No, your friend’s apartment was empty and the agents are still looking for him. But I’m not worried about him. James knows how to handle himself.”

 

Stark’s voice carries through the open door.  _“I still say this is alien technology and not magic! There’s_ no  _such thing as magic! This is… ridiculous! Bruce, you’re a scientist!”_

 

“Shut up, Tony, we’ve seen weirder things happen,” Black Widow calls over her shoulder. “I think this is cute.”

 

_“Cute?!”_

 

To Steve’s shock, Black Widow ignores Stark’s squealing and walks all the way right next to Steve. “We have one hour to prepare you before you’re expected in the courthouse,” she says, and releases Steve’s restraints. The smile drops from her face and she gives Steve a hard glare. “James is my friend, and if you fuck this up for him in any way, I’ll make you regret it.”

 

Steve stretches his arms and stands up. “Don’t worry,” he says, and what a weird thing it is to look  _down_ to someone. “I won’t.”

 

She looks at him for a moment, and then nods sharply. “See that you won’t. And call me Natasha. That’s what James calls me, and you need to get in character.”

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Bucky_ **

 

There’s clearly a bunch of other people in the subway who didn’t know about the extensive security preparations either.

 

“Oh c’mon!” a chubby guy with a red baseball cap yells with frustration. “Everyone knows that the Sarge is going to get pardoned. Why the fuck do they need to shut down half of Manhattan when tomorrow he’s going to walk freely everywhere?!”

 

There’s more pissed off exclamations and people agreeing with the guy. Bucky shifts his weight from one foot to another, and his gaze darts nervously around. To his surprise, nobody speaks up in disagreement, and even though people are clearly annoyed, all the annoyance seems to be directed towards the inconvenience of shut down stations.

 

“See? See what I’ve told you?” Sam says challengingly, and Bucky gives him a glare.

 

“Shuddup,” he mutters.

 

“This is what most people  _actually_ think.”

 

“Not everyone.”

 

“Of course not  _everyone,_ and especially  _not_ the people on all the forums where you’ve been hanging around despite everyone telling you not to,” Sam says sharply. “But man, I’ve been trying to tell you that most people want to see Sergeant Barnes to get his happy ending.” He smiles a crooked, unamused smile. “You never checked out ‘Bucky Barnes Defense Squad’, did you?”

 

Bucky rolls his eyes. “Of course I didn’t, that’s a fucking stupid name for a radio show.”

 

“Podcast,” Sam corrects easily and smirks. “Did I tell you that my friend  _Steve_ hosts it?”

 

Bucky stares at him for a moment and then groans. “He really has shit inside his skull instead of a brain, doesn’t he?”

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Steve_ **

 

He doesn’t take a shower -- that would be… disrespectful -- but he does wash his face and hair thoroughly in the sink, combs his hair, and lets Black Widow-  _Natasha_ style it for him, as well as trim his beard.

 

He’s been aware that he’s in Bucky Barnes’s body now for close to an hour, but it really hits him only now, when he’s in the bathroom, a mirror in front of him and Natasha Romanov’s hands in his (Bucky’s) hair.

 

“How good of an actor are you?” Natasha asks him. “Nobody will expect you to  _not_ be James, but it won’t hurt to do your best to act like him.”

 

Steve considers this. “I’m not a professional, but I’ve done my share of theater. I’ve always wanted to do my part in the world, and for a guy like me, I figured finally that it was never going to be through action but through speaking my mind and getting my message out there. So… I’ve gone through some body language courses, I know how to make a certain impression.”

 

Natasha nods. “Don’t overdo anything. That’s the biggest mistake the amateurs make. But you’ve seen all the footage of him there is in the public, so you know how he in general acts.”

 

Steve nods. “Resigned. Tired. Anxious in the crowds.” Steve knows it’s going to be a… challenge to imitate Barnes. He has been on a defense of the man for so long that the hardest part will be to bite his tongue and not lash out.

 

Natasha is quiet for a moment, and then, to Steve’s surprise, she rests her hand on his shoulder and squeezes. “You were right in your latest podcast. He’s been looking forward for a chance to get his retribution, not his freedom.”

 

“That’s what I’ve been afraid of,” Steve says quietly. “That he was going to condemn himself in front of the jury and play for the prosecutor’s corner.”

 

“There has been a lot of dirty politics behind this trial. Rogers, if you can save him today, I’ll owe you. Please help him.”

 

“You won’t owe me anything. I’m only doing what’s right.”

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Bucky_ **

 

They get out of the subway on the next station. Bucky’s feet are aching and there’s a sharp pain on the sole of his left foot when he walks, but before he opens his mouth and asks Sam if perhaps Steve has a cancer growing inside his foot, he remembers that Sam mentioned something about flat feet back in his apartment. Nothing life threatening then.

 

Once they are out of the station and up on the street, Sam pulls out his phone. Bucky steps next to him to look at the screen.

 

“Dammit,” Sam says. “Okay, so there are roadblocks around the Tower. Apparently the police is not taking any risks today.”

 

Bucky looks at the phone and frowns. “Hey, you have my number, right?”

 

“Of course I have. Why are you asking--” Sam pauses and groans. “We’ve been idiots.”

 

“Speak for yourself,” Bucky mutters. “I have a legit excuse for forgetting that phones exist.”

 

Sam gives him a dirty look and selects Bucky’s number.

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Steve_ **

 

He’s putting on a dark blue suit, when a phone starts to ring on the nightstand.

 

“Natasha, any idea who ‘Birdbrain’ is?” Steve yells after checking out the caller.

 

“Sounds like it could be Clint. Answer it, and if it’s not, then just say that you can’t talk right now and hang up.”

 

Steve hesitates for a second, but picks up the call. “Hello?”

 

There’s a moment of silence. Then,  _“Oh man, uh, this is Sam. I’ll get straight to it, so… Steve, is it you?”_

 

_“Sam?”_ His best friend’s voice is literally the last thing he expected to hear. “Yes, it’s me. How did you--” He pauses. “Is Barnes with you?”

 

“What?” Natasha hisses from the doorway. “Who is it?”

 

_“Yeah, uh, he’s here. We’re few blocks away from the Tower. Are you there?”_

 

“Yeah,” Steve replies. He has  _so many questions,_ starting with ‘why the fuck Sam’s number is saved in Bucky’s phone’. “You’re coming here, right?”

 

_“That’s the thing, we can’t. The police has shut down the streets. Any chance anyone can come get us?”_

 

“I’ll give the phone to someone who knows better,” Steve says and looks at Natasha with a quirked eyebrow. She nods and takes the phone.

 

“Give your phone to James,” Natasha says the moment she gets the phone against her ear.

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Bucky_ **

 

Sam’s eyes widen, before he chuckles. “That’s  _rude,_ Tasha. But okay, okay.” He offers the phone to Bucky.

 

“Natasha?”

 

_“James,”_ she says, and then continues in Russian.  _“Tell me something only you know.”_

 

“Purple potatoes,” Bucky answers to her drily in Russian. “Never again.”

 

Natasha snorts. _“Not my fault you were too ticklish to stay still for a pedicure. Where are you?”_ Bucky relays the subway station’s name and Natasha clicks her tongue.  _“Okay, that’s a tough one. I can come pick you up with a cloaked quinjet, but you need to get somewhere where I can actually land.”_

 

“Central Park?”

 

_“That’ll work. Meet you near the Pond?”_

 

“Sure.” Bucky hesitates. “Uh, anyone know yet how to reverse this, uh, body swap? I want to return this one. It’s crap.”

 

_“We don’t know anything yet for sure, but Bruce has been deciphering the symbols on the box you picked up, and he says it’s fairy magic. Blah blah, something about true love, blah blah, something about second chances and miracles granted for those worthy of them,”_ Natasha says with a smirk (Bucky can  _hear_ it) and then hangs up before Bucky can respond.

 

Bucky glares at the phone. Magic? True love? Miracles? Pfft, Bucky doesn’t believe in any of those things. Natasha is pulling his leg.

 

Sam clears his throat. “What did she say?”

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Steve_ **

 

Natasha warns him that she probably won’t be back with Bucky and Sam before Steve has to leave for his trial. Steve pushes away his disappointment.

 

Steve is left in Bucky’s suite with Hawkeye and Stark, both of them still in their combat gear. It’s a spacious place, with few bedrooms, a gym, a couple of bathrooms, and a huge area that combines the living room and a kitchen separated by an island. It’s at least four times as large as Steve’s own apartment in Brooklyn.

 

Steve ignores the two men. His focus is on going through the stuff that Natasha left with him on the laptop. He knows everything there is to know about the Winter Soldier trial that is available for public, but the correspondence and notes between Bucky, Natasha, Pepper Potts, and Bucky’s legal team is all new for him.

 

Well, it’s all mostly correspondence between everyone else but Bucky. Whenever Bucky has chimed in, it’s only because there has been a direct question to him, and his answers are short, factual, and to the point.

 

“Soooo,” Stark says and sits at the other side of the island. “When did you decide to make Bucky Bear your one true cause?”

 

“When I saw that nobody else was making a good enough effort to defend him in public,” Steve says, not looking up from the emails.

 

“But why  _him?_ The world is a bleak place. There’s thousands of causes to defend.”

 

Steve makes a noncommittal humm. He’s not going to explain himself to anyone, especially not to  _Tony Stark._

 

He knows it’s… sentimental, at its core. Sergeant Bucky Barnes, later also known as the Captain America who lead the Howling Commandos (although Captain’s secret identity was revealed only after the war), used to be Steve’s childhood hero. Before Steve turned ten, he had already read and reread multiple times the biographies of his life, as well as the true classic, ‘The Letters of the Captain America: The Man Behind The Shield’.

 

He’s not in denial about Bucky Barnes being his first crush -- that childhood kind of crush, where the innocent admiration and infatuation is focused safely on someone unattainable, on someone put on the pedestal. The kind, loyal man, with the sharp mind but even bigger heart, who was ahead of his not-so-progressed times, who led proudly his ragtag team into the war? Steve’s mother used to joke good-naturedly about Steve’s ‘idol’. Steve daydreamed about meeting Bucky himself, not of  _being_ him.  _Of course_ he knew that Bucky died years ago, but fantasies are fantasies.

 

In his childish fantasies, he dreamt about waking up in the 20s or 30s, and meeting Bucky, who took one look at him, and… wanted to be his friend. Saw beyond his ailments which kept him homebound so often, just like he never judged anyone poorly in his letters back to home.

 

Sometimes in Steve’s fantasies he dreamt that young Bucky would suddenly be there at  _Steve’s_ school one day, and Steve would finally have a friend. Those fantasies, the stories Steve told to himself daily while making himself invisible on the playground, well, they kept him going even when the life sucked.

 

The fantasies took a bit of a turn when he hit his puberty, and he realised that his crush on a dead hero was not purely platonic and brotherly. Eventually Steve grew out of them -- he knew his obsession with Captain America had mostly been a defense mechanism during a lonely childhood.

 

Still, when the Winter Soldier’s story hit the public and became the sensation of the year, he couldn’t help but get swept by it. And it didn’t take long for his activist soul to flare up and him to make up his mind about wanting to help anyway he could. To pay back for a man who unwittingly had made Steve’s childhood tolerable.

 

Stark makes an impatient noise and taps his fingers against the island. “Well, aren’t you just as riveting conversationalist as your ‘soulmate’.”

 

“Excuse me?” Steve says, and finally looks up from his tablet. “‘Soulmate’?”

 

Stark huffs and waves his hand dismissively. “A joke. A joke carved in a box that everyone is taking seriously. You don’t believe in magic, do you? Please, I can’t be the only sensible one here.”

 

“I woke up in someone else’s body,” Steve says mildly. “I think a lot of people would describe that as ‘magic’.”

 

Stark throws his hands up in the air. “Quantum physics! Unknown alien technology! There’s always an explanation, logic and reason, even when it’s not apparent to us yet.”

 

Steve looks back at the emails. “I don’t really care whether I’m in this body because of aliens or magic. I’m in it, and that’s enough for me to know.”

 

“Fairy magic is real,” Hawkeye says suddenly. “I’ve seen it before.”

 

Stark groans and rolls his eyes. “Magic tricks are also ‘real’, and people have seen them. Doesn’t mean there’s actually  _magic_ behind the tricks.”

 

Hawkeye shrugs. “I’m not looking to convince you. I just know what I’ve seen, so if  _Bruce_ says that Barnes and Rogers swapped because of fairy magic, then I’m inclined to believe it.”

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Bucky_ **

 

Sam whistles appreciatively as they climb inside the quinjet, ignoring the gawking civilians who have stopped to stare and take pictures of the Avengers’ quinjet casually landed in  Central Park. The cloaking technology is ace, but it doesn’t actually make the jet invisible, and works best while the jet is in the air and far away from the eyes.

 

Natasha tilts her head and smiles sweetly when she sees Bucky. “Wow, Rogers is even cuter in person than in pictures.”

 

Bucky has seen his scrawny reflection in windows, but he hasn’t really paid much attention. It’s unnerving, wearing someone else’s face. And he has enough bad memories of spending too many hours disassociating in front of the mirrors, staring at his own face and not recognizing himself. He doesn’t want to look in the mirror, find a stranger’s face, and get reminded of that feeling.

 

Sam smirks. “You think what I’m thinking, Nat?”

 

Natasha’s smile turns into a smug grin as she looks over her shoulder before sitting down on the pilot seat. “Bruce says it’s fairy magic. Something about  _soulmates.”_

 

Bucky rolls his eyes, but doesn’t say anything as he sits down on his usual seat.

 

Sam looks annoyingly delighted and amused. “Magic is a thing now? Cool, I’m okay with that, because hell yeah, that’s the best thing I’ve heard the whole week.”

 

“Sam, you should have told me that you know Rogers,” Natasha says. “I wanted him in James’s defense team when we were forming it, but Pepper vetoed it. Said he’s too volatile and a risk.”

 

“He’s not… volatile,” Sam says defensively. “He’s just… not one for compromises.”

 

So, according to Sam and Natasha, the great body thief Steve Rogers is not only an idiot, but a stubborn, assholish idiot. Great.

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Steve_ **

 

When the elevator doors open, and it’s Pepper Potts with a bunch of agents who walk in, Steve is disappointed.

 

He had wanted to meet Bucky Barnes before the trial, to tell him in person that…

 

To tell him what? What could he have even said? Steve is a nobody. Ask him for a permission to stand in for his trial? Well, truthfully, Steve would probably ignore it even if Bucky told him not to.

 

Steve sighs, and lets himself be cuffed yet again and escorted to the elevator and down to the garage.

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Bucky_ **

 

Bucky is relieved when Natasha gets a call from Clint in mid-landing on the Tower’s roof.

 

“Fuck,” Natasha says darkly after Clint disconnects. “I hoped for more time to prepare him.”

 

“He’ll make it,” Sam says. “It’s Steve.”

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Steve_ **

 

He’s brought to the courthouse in a car that’s more  _tank_ than a car. It’s driven straight to the underground garage beneath the building, and from there he’s escorted to the holding cell to wait.

 

Sitting alone inside yet another bare cell, Steve is happy that it’s him here, not Bucky. He doesn’t know how Bucky is feeling about any of this, but this is easier for Steve to endure than for Bucky.

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Bucky_ **

 

Bucky has been expecting this day ever since he walked inside the Avengers’ Tower lobby and turned himself in.

 

Well, truthfully, he expected to be shot right there and then… so more accurately: he has been expecting this day ever since he realised that he was actually going to go through the farce of a trial and public lynching.

 

He just never thought that he would spend the trial day on his couch, with a strange civilian body, watching the procedures live on the TV with Clint, Sam, and Natasha.

 

“What are we going to do if I get sentenced?”

 

“We’ll figure something out,” Natasha says and squeezes his shoulder. “God, Rogers is  _bony._ Remember to feed your boy when you get him.”

 

“Fuck off. I’ve never even met him. And he sounds like a moron.”

 

Sam chuckles.

 

Natasha snorts, and then says in a more solemn voice: “I’m glad this happened.”

 

Bucky grimaces. “It should be me there.”

 

“You wouldn’t have given yourself a fair trial. So  _no,_ you’re  _right_  where you should be. At home, and letting someone who cares about the outcome more than you handle it.”

 

Bucky doesn’t respond.

 

When ‘Bucky’ is called to witness stand and Steve starts to speak, Bucky has to get up and leave the room.

 

He knows he should be relieved that out of all options, the person who possessed his body today was someone on his side and not someone looking to get Bucky’s supersoldier body for themself and use it for more violence.

 

But watching his own face on TV, listening to his own voice recounting his history as Winter Soldier, making  _excuses_ instead of telling the jury that he agreed, that he deserved whatever they’d decide for him, that he was not pleading ‘not guilty’ and never would…

 

He can’t watch it.

 

But he can’t  _not_ watch it, dammit.

 

After some deep breaths, he gets out of his bedroom and back to the living room. He doesn’t get back onto the couch with the others; he lingers at the doorway, and listens to how the stranger he has never met is telling his story for everyone.

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Steve_ **

 

It’s hard not to smile when the verdict is read aloud. The applause from the jury and from the audience is deafening.

 

He knows he needs to play it cool. Shocked is good, relieved is fine, but punching up in the air and yelling  _‘yes!’_ would raise eyebrows.

 

He’s escorted out of the courtroom, this time without the cuffs.

 

There’s a brief incident in a hallway when a man steps in front of Steve and yells something in Russian that makes Steve’s head hurt for a second, but that’s dealt with fast (the man doesn’t fight back and just stares at Steve in disbelief, like he expects him to do something other than scowl and shove him away), and they continue on their way to the garage.

 

He is back in the Tower and in the elevator with Miss Potts when it hits him that the most nerve-wracking part is not over yet.

 

He’s going to meet  _Bucky Barnes,_ for real.

 

Fuck. He stands up straight and takes a deep breath. He’s not sure what kind of a reception he’s going to get.

 

It’s Natasha and Sam who he sees first when the elevator doors open. Sam, smiling widely, and Natasha, smiling if not that widely.

 

Then, behind them, Bucky in Steve’s body.

 

It’s a mind fuck, to put it mildly, to see ‘himself’. Steve feels dismayed by how he actually looks even shorter, especially next to Sam, than Steve actually has ever  _felt._

 

Steve Rogers looks so out of place here -- just a short, scrawny civilian, a nobody with clothes not that fancy -- that Steve feels a rush of embarrassment for himself.

 

Bucky is not smiling.

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Bucky_ **

 

He’s pretty sure he has had a nightmare like this before. Watching himself out of his body, feeling powerless to stop the Winter Soldier approaching his friends and snapping their necks.

 

Okay, so his face is not currently Soldier-slack, that suit is far from being Winter Soldier uniform, and nobody’s necks are probably going to get snapped. Still. A moment of disorienting deja vu makes him nauseous.

 

But then he reminds himself about what he saw on TV. The approaching man might look like him, that might be his body, but the man inside it has not been shaped as a weapon. Bucky knows how he himself would have reacted if  _he_ had been there in the hallway after the trial, with the man jumping in front of him spouting trigger words.

 

“You really know how to get yourself in trouble, Steve,” Sam says amusedly and shakes his head.

 

“Hey, I didn’t do anything,” Rogers-in-Bucky’s body says to Sam, but his eyes keep flicking back to Bucky.

 

Bucky looks away. There’s a strained silence for a moment, and he’s certain that it’s because everyone is expecting him to say something, but fuck it, what could he say? He didn’t ask Rogers to be a moron and to go to his trial, and he’s not going to thank him for it.

 

Oh. But he should apologise for the mess, shouldn’t he? He was the one who foolishly poked at that strange object found in Hydra lab. “I’m sorry that I dragged you into this mess.”

 

He almost adds ‘I didn’t mean to’ or ‘I didn’t know any of this would happen when I opened that box’, but he doesn’t.  _Intentions_ mean fuck nothing. He never meant to become Winter Soldier either, he never meant to kill hundreds of people, but all of it happened anyway. So sure, he didn’t mean to cause a body swap and drag a random civilian into his life, but he did it anyway.

 

“No, I’m glad this happened!” Rogers says, and ugh, ‘earnest’ looks ridiculous on Bucky’s face. “Sergeant, uh, I don’t know if you have heard of me, but it’s an honor to-”

 

“Save your breath,” Bucky interrupts him, annoyed, not interested to hear whatever idealistic spiel this ‘fan of his’ has his head full. “I don’t care.”

 

Rogers snaps his mouth shut.

 

Natasha glares at Bucky.  _“James.”_

 

Rogers clears his throat, and then, avoiding looking at Bucky, says awkwardly: “So… any idea if this swap will reverse itself on its own?”

 

“Haven’t you ever read fairy tales?” Natasha asks, still glaring at Bucky. “You need to end the spell with a true love’s kiss. After hitting them round the head for being an asshole.”

 

“Uh…”

 

“I don’t want to swap back,” Bucky says, ignoring Natasha’s glares and jibes.

 

God, Bucky hates how his own face looks like as Rogers stares at him owlishly and with disbelief. “What?”

 

Bucky sighs. “I watched the TV. That man in the hallway was on a suicide mission and tried to make you kill everyone in that courthouse with those trigger words. But they didn’t affect you in my body, and they didn’t affect me either when I heard them in this body.”

 

Natasha narrows her eyes. “So just because there are some issues to work on you decide to stay in his body?”

 

“Some pretty damn big issues, I’d say,” Bucky says pointedly.

 

Bucky is not going to explain to her his full reasoning, because he knows that she wouldn’t appreciate it. But… if Bucky is not going to get sentenced to death, the next best penance?

 

Giving up his serumed body for a man who actually went to all the trouble to get it pardoned, and settle himself in this mortal body that could drop dead any moment.

 

Steve makes an odd noise. “You- You can’t just  _keep_ my body.”

 

“Why not? Don’t tell me you want this one back. I’m giving you free rein to a serumed up body. You seem like a lot better man than I am, so keep it and do whatever you want with it. Save kittens for all I care.”

 

 

\---

 

 

There’s a lot of bickering and arguing and outright yelling once Natasha figures the rest of Bucky’s motivations out, but it’s all resolved when, after a few hours, the reverse swap happens on its own anyway.

 

To others’ disappointment, there’s no kissing or falling in love at the first sight after the reverse snap. Obviously. Rogers leaves and goes home. Life continues.

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Steve_ **

 

A month after the trial, Bucky appears at NYU, a baseball cap pulled low. He approaches Steve after his lecture.

 

“Hey,” Bucky says warily. “So uh. I was kind of a dick to you when we last met. Didn’t even thank you for what you did. I was hoping that we could start over?”

 

Steve smiles. “I’d love that.” He offers his hand. “Steve. Good to meet you.”

 

Bucky smiles hesitantly and takes his hand. “Bucky. I’ve been listening to your radio show.”

 

“You mean the podcast?”

 

“Yeah, that. It’s pretty good. I can see why it’s popular.” A pause. “Thanks.”

 

Steve looks at him for a moment, and then nods. “I’m glad to hear you’ve enjoyed it.”

 

“Your righteous tone makes me fall asleep pretty fast,” Bucky says with a hesitant, mischievous smile, like he’s testing the waters. “It’s like a miracle pill.”

 

Steve snorts. “Fucking jerk. Did you come here to thank me or to insult me?”

 

“Both? Hey, I was just kidding--”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**_Steve - a month ago / 1998 / 1927_ **

 

_Steve is dreaming, and he knows it. He doesn’t know the word then, not at eight, but if he had, he would have called it a lucid dream._

 

_He’s on the schoolyard, but it’s not his school’s. It looks like the pictures in the book he was reading just before going to sleep. As well as the children’s clothes, the buildings that surround the yard, even the cars that Steve can faintly see on the street._

 

_“Hey, who the hell are you?” someone calls, and Steve turns just in time to get shoved backwards by a bigger kid. “Where did ya appear from?”_

 

_Steve trips over, and falls onto the ground. “Fuck off!”_

 

_The kid and his friends laugh._

 

_“The fuck you doing, Jerry?” someone says from behind Steve. “Leave him alone, or I’ll punch ya face again.”_

 

_The big kid -- Jerry -- sneers. “Whatever,” he says haughtily, and the kids leave._

 

_The kid who came to Steve’s defense shoves him, not hard but not lightly either. “Get up. Your clothes will get all muddy.”_

 

_“Fuck off to you too,” Steve mutters, but stands up, and turns, only to be face to face with a boy he recognizes from the photographs in his book. “Hey, you are…”_

 

_Bucky grins. “I’m Bucky. Who the hell are you? Never seen you before.”_

 

_Steve gapes. “I’m Steve.”_

 

_“You a new kid at the school?”_

 

_“I, uh, I guess so,” Steve says, because why not? It’s his dream._

 

_“You can stick with me,” Bucky says. “Hey, the class starts soon-”_

 

_“Actually,” Steve interrupts. “I don’t wanna go to school. Let’s go do something more fun.”_

 

_Bucky looks hesitant, but intrigued. “Like what?”_

 

_Steve looks around them. The kids are leaving the schoolyard to go inside. “I dunno. You know somewhere fun?”_

 

_Bucky’s face brightens and he puffs his chest. “Oh yeah, you wanna see--”_

 

_A tinny, sing-song voice interrupts him. “Tsk tsk, not so fast boys.”_

 

 

_\---_

 

 

**_Bucky - a month ago / 1927_ **

 

_“And who the fuck are_ you?”  _Bucky demands from the strange kid, who’s standing few meters away, his -- her? -- their head tilted, looking at him and Steve with fondness and amusement._

 

_“Me?” the kid says. “Someone whose wishing stone you found, Bucky Barnes. Someone who deemed you worthy of a miracle and a chance for a happy ending. Did you know that the Powers That Shall Not Be Named make approximately ten thousand errors and glitches every day?”_

 

_“Huh?” Bucky glances at Steve, who looks as perplexed as Bucky feels._

 

_The kid shrugs. “There’s so much to keep track of. Your soulmate was supposed to survive the childhood, so that you two could meet today. Your story was written in the stars millions of years ago. But, alas, the Powers That Shall Not Be Named played a joke on a man ten years ago in Australia and tricked him to lick a wrong frog, and the ripples of that event made it so that poor Steven died when he was four years old, only because the doctor who was supposed to save him died years ago because of one silly joke. These things happen all the time. Tragic.”_

 

_“But... I’m not dead,” Steve says._

 

_“Well, not anymore, since you got reincarnated, duh,” the kid says with an eye roll. “Kids these days. You don’t know anything.”_

 

_Bucky feels chills run up his spine. “Bullshit. Steve, let’s go. I want to show you the Coney Island.”_

 

_“My magic is limited,” the kid says sadly. “If I could, I would give you a whole day, Bucky Barnes, but I can’t twist and hold the timelines for that long. I’ll need my magic for one more gift, so you can get a chance for something more lasting than one bittersweet day. After that, your fates and futures are in your own hands.”_

 

_The kid disappears._

 

_“What the hell?” Bucky yells in shock. He turns to look at Steve, but Steve is gone as well._

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Steve - 1998_ **

 

Steve wakes up on his bed. The details of the dream are already slipping away, but he remembers the schoolyard and the kid with a bright, wicked smile.

 

He grabs his glasses and the book from his nightstand. He turns on the lamp on the nightstand and looks at the cover.

 

It’s a collage of Captain America. He touches lightly the photo of a little kid in one corner.

 

_‘You can stick with me.’_

 

Steve smiles, and flops back onto his bed. He opens the book, and starts to flip through the pages. His mom gave the book for him for his birthday, and he hasn’t yet read through it all, but suddenly, all because of the dream, he can’t put it down. He can’t remember the dream well, but it felt so _real._

 

 

\---

 

 

**_Bucky - 2019_ **

 

“Bucky? What’s wrong?”

 

“I- you look like a kid I met once,” Bucky says and can’t drag his eyes away from a photo of a nine year old Steve grinning at him from the computer screen. “In Brooklyn. When I was a kid.”

 

“Huh,” Steve says and Bucky can hear the smile in his voice. “Maybe he was my great-uncle or something.”

 

“No, I think… ” Bucky shakes his head. “Yeah, probably.”

 

Steve hugs him from behind and kisses the top of his head. “Funny coincidences.”

 

“Yeah,” Bucky says absentmindedly.

 

A few years ago he would have scoffed at the strange memory which had been buried in his mind until he saw a picture of Steve as a kid, but... hey, these days even  _Stark_ has had to admit that magic does exist. Bucky makes a mental note to himself to ask Bruce and Clint about fairy magic, soulmates, and reincarnations tomorrow.

 

 

 

 


End file.
